Schneiderman Says He’ll Pursue Dual Roles In Mortgage Probes

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is being tapped to co-chair the Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses by President Obama.

Meanwhile, Schneiderman has been beating back attempts by the Obama administration to reach a multi-state settlement with major banks over the mortgage crisis.

Schneiderman doesn’t see the dual roles at odds.

“The multi-state talks all relate to post-crash conduct,” he told reporters today in Washington D.C. “These are abuses in the foreclosure process. Our working group is focusing on the conduct related to the pooling and the creation of mortgage-backed securities and issues relating to the conduct that created the crash, not the abuses that happened after the crash.”

There has been some talk that Schneiderman’s new role on the Obama-created task force could be a precursor to a deal with the banks, allowing Schneiderman to claim victory that he pushed for greater reform and the president to tout a settlement with the banks.

But Schneiderman said his negotiations on a multi-state settlement on the housing bubble with banking giants Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and others will continue.

“There have been investigations going on in various states and branches of the federal government. We’re now making a concerted effort to pull everything together and move forward aggressively to address these issues,” he said.

Schneiderman was a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union last night. Today, Schneiderman joined federal officials to in Washington, where he announced the development of a database to combat consumer financial frauds directed at members of the military—an issue he has pursued since taking office last year.